After the Ending:Making your Presentation Resonate

Let’s say you pulled off an incredible presentation. You used the principles in the presentation form with grace and ease to convey your ideas and the audience made a commitment to transform. Sounds like a huge victory —but it’s not over yet.

The end of your presentation marks the next phase of the adventure for the audience.

The human ability to accept new insights creates room for people to become something different. As indicated by the final dashed line at the end of the presentation form, the audience starts becoming something different from what they were at the beginning of the presentation.

But when you are done delivering your presentation, the adoption of your idea is still inconclusive. The audience will determine the outcome. Some presentations end with the audience leaving full of support, some don’t. Your idea could end as a comedy or tragedy—the two forms of dramatic resolution proposed in Greek literature. If they don’t adopt your idea, it could end as a tragedy. Tragedy is the downfall of a once admirable hero—a good person whose demise comes as a result of some personal error or mistake. Or it could resolve as a comedy. Comedy doesn’t mean it’s funny; it’s defined as a rise in the fortune of a sympathetic hero. The hallmark of comedy isn’t laughter, it’s the satisfaction felt when a deserving person succeeds.

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.